1 comment:

In the aftermath of the collision between Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251, I decided to subscribe myself to the SEESAT-L list, a group of dedicated amateurs who make observations of artificial satellites. They are a bunch of guys who display very knack-ish (knack-ered?) behavior. One of them posted a link to this movie of Comet Lulin:

The camera is currently tracking the stars, so you can clearly see the motion of the comet against the background stars. At the beginnin, you can see a streak in the upper left. This is apparently a geostationary satellite.

Back in 2003, a friend of mine had sent me a couple of astrophotographs of the Orion Nebula that he had taken, which showed some streaks:

I hypothesized that it was a geostationary satellite (I measured the path length, and determined the rough orbital velocity, which was appropriate for a geostationary bird, and it would have been very near the orbital plane of the equator) and indeed one of the seesat members identified it as a Canadian geostationary satellite, Anik F1.

Help SolderSmoke! Shop Amazon Starting Here:

The International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards!

Put your e-mail address here to follow by e-mail!

Subscribe To SolderSmoke

Translate

Listen to SolderSmoke with Stitcher

Click on the image above

SolderSmoke -- The Book

Click on the Book Cover!

SolderSmoke - The Book!

In response to popular demand, "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" is now available as an e-book for Amazon's Kindle.
Here's the site:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V9FIVW
***************************************
For the print version:
For shipping from a printer in the U.S. (probably better for N. American buyers) Click here: SolderSmoke USA Version
-------------------------
For shipping from a printer in the UK, Spain, or the USA (probably better for UK and other European buyers)
Click here: SolderSmoke EU Version
The two versions are identical, except for a minor difference in the paper used. That's why the prices are a bit different.